1. Field of the Art
This invention relates to apparatus for receiving and crushing empty metal containers such as aluminum beverage food cans or containers and dispensing a refund for the cans.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Recycling of aluminum, as in aluminum cans, is a vital energy saver, is a supplemental source of raw material, and helps turn the problem of litter into economic opportunities. Recycling conserves large quantities of energy since producing new aluminum from used aluminum beverage cans saves 95% of the energy required to produce molten aluminum from original ore. It also conserves much-needed capital and precious raw materials. A facility to process recycled aluminum can be built for one-tenth of the cost and half the time of new aluminum refining and smelting capacity. Recycled containers have also become an economical source of metal which reduces our dependence on foreign imports.
Recycling of empty aluminum beverage cans continues to set new records, but billions of cans are still discarded in land fills or other waste repositories. At present, about 50% of the aluminum beverage cans are recycled. Since there are approximately 1.4 billion pounds of aluminum cans used each year, this means that about 700 million pounds of aluminum cans are not recycled.
In order to promote recycling of cans, the process must be made more convenient for the consumer. Improved convenience requires the addition of many collection centers at closely spaced locations, supermarkets or grocery stores or retail outlets such as convenience stores, for example. This minimizes travel time, itself a conserver of gasoline, in returning cans to collection centers. Generally, consumers are increasingly unwilling to make a special trip of some distance to return a few pounds of aluminum cans. A typical full-scale collection center, which requires at least one full-time attendant, must receive large quantities of cans in order to make the collection process economical. Such centers are, therefore, located to be accessible to large population concentrations and are not convenient to many people for return of small quantities of cans.
Increasing the number of collection centers for cans requires automation of the collection process. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide machines which are adapted to receive empty cans and automatically dispense a refund for the cans without the need for a full-time operator or attendant at the machine.
Machines for receiving empty bottles and dispensing refunds for such bottles have been well known for many years. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,560,242; 1,791,078; 1,809,693; 1,866,716; 1,897,072; 1,922,253; and 1,987,835 all disclose vending machines which both dispense filled bottles and receive empty bottles for which a refund as a coin or coupon is given.
Machines for receiving empty metal cans and dispensing a refund for the cans are also known as disclosed by several U.S. patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,643 to Meyers discloses an apparatus for collecting metallic containers, crushing the containers and dispensing a token for nonmagnetic metallic containers. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,792,765; 3,857,334; 4,091,725; and 4,141,493 to Arp are all addressed to apparatus for dispensing tokens for empty cans returned to the apparatus. Arp's machines include sensing devices for determining whether the cans are of a given size, weight and design for payment of a token for the cans. The machines also include crushing rams or platens to flatten the cans which reduces their volume for storage in the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,087 to Tanaka also discloses a machine for discharging refund coins in response to receiving metallic cans of different sizes, the can being crushed in the machine for storage purposes. The machine includes microswitch means for selectively limiting the distance of the forward stroke of a reciprocating pressure plate to permit accommodation of large and small sized cans in their respective crushable positions.
Although several machines are known for receiving, crushing and dispensing a refund for empty metallic beverage cans, an improved machine is desired which (1) is small, quiet and attractive enough to be placed inside a supermarket, (2) is highly fraud-resistant, (3) is safe for use by women and children, (4) does not malfunction from spillage of residue beverage in the cans, (5) accepts designated containers, and (6) requires a minimum of service.